Sunday, May 13, 2012

White Plum Blossoms-白梅

Second stop: Shinjuku station to pick up Japan JR Rail
Passes. (If you ever travel in Japan, this is a MUST.)

Third stop: Tokyo station to catch a bullet train-新幹線 (shinkansen).

Fourth stop: Kyoto.

When we arrived in Kyoto,
we made our way to our accommodations for that evening. We didn’t know it then, but our experience at
this traditional Japanese ryokan (inn) would be one of the highlights of our
whole trip.

The ryokan, which is in
Kyoto’s Gion district, is called Shiraume-白梅, which means
white plum blossoms.

As we walked along the
old stone street, we passed a geisha and a maiko. The plum trees were blooming. A small stream flowed along one side of the
road. A crane flew right onto the bridge
entrance to our ryokan as we approached.

I was instantly
impressed. The scene was so
picturesque. A crane. A little bridge with a stream running under
it. White plum blossoms blooming. It was perfect.

View of the street from the room.

Beautiful painting inside Shiraume.

Decor inside one of the rooms.

As we entered, we were
greeted by Tomoko-the woman who runs the ryokan. She spoke English extremely well. Our rooms were not quite ready yet, but they
took our luggage for us and gave suggested we do some site seeing before
returning to officially check in.

As we were leaving,
Tomoko took me aside and told me that someone had just canceled their room
reservation for that night and offered the room to Karl and I free of
charge.